Vectrex news: 3/23/2013
Here is the Vectrex news edition for March 23, 2013! New hardware It’s funny that, with all the things that have been done with the Vectrex over the years – new games being created, along with controllers, various hardware stuff, Vectrex Wraps, etc. – no one had installed a dedicated pause feature until just recently, which Jason Bardis did, with his Pause Mod Vectrex, which he built and sold (actually he had created his first one back in 2011, but this was the first one he released and sold to the public). So, for those who want more than just Spinball and Star Ship being able to pause (not to mention many other modern day homebrews that don’t have this feature, although several of them do), there ya go. (A video of it can be seen here.) Also, for anyone having the needs and want to make their reproduction Vectrex cartridges or just have some PCBs that need casings, some shells were created by Computer Nerd Kev with a 3-D printer that he is offering for sale, which shipping details and the like can be seen here. New videos Along with the aforementioned video of the Vectrex (Pause Mod), there is also the very curious “Vectrex SPACE” video, which the person who filmed the video (YouTube user nsrrenardalt, who is manipulating a Vectrex so it behaves strangely) shows a bizarre title screen to appear that just reads “Space” with a copyright date of 1103. As someone commented in the video's comments, it could be some data on a ROM cart that was hidden, rather than deleted, and he was able to trigger it (somehow). Also, newcomer Vectrex programmer Phoenix Risen put up a video of his Vectrex Squares demo, plus a video was also released of the Nuance - Epic Realtime - Demo by axiscascade. And as probably anyone who has read several of these news items in the past and is paying attention knows, we hardly ever report any of the very common/done to death reviews on the Vectrex itself and/or Mine Storm that have been done many times over. However, a much more rare review of the 3D Imager will definitely catch our attention, such as the one done by VectrexRoli, along with theawesomegamr doing videos on the rare carts of Art Master and Melody Master. Finally, Mine Storm on the C64 Videos for Fortress of Narzod and Spike for the Commodore 64 computer were released a while back, and now not only was their promised version of Mine Storm finally completed recently, but the MineStorm/Spike cart was also released! You can see the video here, along with quite a few cosmetic changes of the game (it’s a bit of a departure as to how it looks, unlike with how Spike and Fortress of Narzod still retained their vector looks), plus with an added soundtrack and high score table as well. Rare Vectrex documents shared On the vector gaming forums (our sister site, even though not a wiki), a post was put up by member desfeek in regards to some rare Vectrex paperwork that he had in his personal collection, being order forms for Vectrex items from the Triton/Electronics Direct mail order company. These forms had coupons for several dollars off of Vectrex goodies after certain orders were placed, if not *free* Vectrex carts being offered altogether! Things snowballed from there, as forum founder VectorX (aka Darrylb500 on here) responded, taking and posting a couple of photos in regards to an old catalog that he owns himself in regards to a Vectrex closeout sale (from probably 1984 or 1985-ish) from the same company. Cartridge prices from his catalog were either only $9.95 U. S. (plus shipping) or $19.95, along with the 3D Imager for only $69.95 (too bad he didn’t have the money for that back then!). Next was an Electronics Direct catalog that was scanned by desfeek as well, showing many Vectrex games, the machine, and replacement Vectrex controllers for sale, along with a thank you note and even receipts from the person he got it from! Then another forum member, turbogfx, posted scans of some Flemish Vectrex ads, and hcmffm also posted a link to a site that had many Vectrex scans as well. The thread can be seen here. New page Since the last news update, the Mine Storm 3 (Fred Taft hack) page was added to the site. Read to see what Mr. Taft did to our beloved built-in game (think disappearing act)! ...and another remake And finally – and with the blessing of Jay Smith – an iOS version of Web Wars was released! This version has planets in the background and your Hawk King is filled in, rather than having a vector look. You can check out the game for your portable Apple device here. Category:Vectrex on other platforms Category:Vectrex news Category:Vectrex games Category:Miscellaneous Vectrex Category:Hardware Category:Homebrewer Category:Hacks